"A statesman gains little by the arbitrary exercise of ironclad authority upon all occasions that offer, for this wounds the just pride of his subordinates, and thus tends to undermine his strength. A little concession, now and then, where it can do no harm is the wiser policy." - MARK TWAIN

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

KATRINA AND THE WAVES OF EMOTION

The devastation from Katrina is absolutely horrible, and I'm deeply and profoundly saddened when I read about the lives that have been lost along with homes, streets, electrical power, and drinking water, not to mention order with the the looting that's taking place. And now Louisiana's Governor (Kathleen Blanco) has ordered everyone must leave New Orleans.

Millions of dollars have been collected by the Red Cross for disaster relief. If you feel so inclined, you can make a donation to the Red Cross via the following:

That said, let me tell you I'm not just saddened, I'm also angry. No. I'm fucking pissed! Forget Cindy Sheehan and all the partisan bullshit, and think about this for a moment. We've dumped Billions upon Billions of dollars into Iraq and what do we have to show for it? It makes my blood boil to think about how those funds could be helping the victims of Katrina and the re-establishment of New Orleans. Not to mention the percentage of National Guardsmen/woman who are stationed in Iraq who are desperately needed here now.

37 Comments:

Kid - thank you (and good to see you again). There's a reason I specifically crafted my post in the order it appears (ie devistation, relief efforts, how to help, and finally and lastly my opinion about the administration).

But if anyone has the fucking audacity to think I'm politicizing this disaster, they can kiss my ass on their way to hell!

Sar, I think you are politicizing this disaster. The national guard is on their way to help. Why couldn't you post this quote "they can kiss my ass on their way to hell! when I was passing Richmond last Friday on my way to hell the next day? Now I finally came back from hell and let me tell ya it was fregin hot there

Sar, in no way are you politicizing this disaster. I commend your post.

Araider, you're a fool if you think Sar is politicizing this disaster. Bush fucked things up big time by having aid cut to the New Orleans area to help protect them against floods (granted, a hurricane of this magnitude would still have brought disaster, but it would've been less destructive). Moreover, a huge part of the National Guard from LA, MS, and AL are all over in Iraq.

I also passed Richmond just a few a hours ago. I almost didn't leave hell yesterday but here i am.

CW-That article doesn't tell me anything about LA, MS, AL national guard being deployed. Besides, even if the Guard wasn't deployed they couldn't of done anything until Katrina blew by. Floods aren't exactly the same as a hurricane. New Orleans always had floods because they're below sea level. It should be the states responsibility to have funding for flooding situations not Bush's.Next you'll probably tell me that it's Bush's fault the hurricane happened.

No, you are not the only one that feels this way.I agree with you.Our nation is in a serious state right now.I think people are angry, they are sad, they are concerned about our future.

That being said, I still feel this is the greatest country in the world. Honestly.Ultimately, we are still the sum of our parts, the people of all walks of life and backgrounds that have in just over 200 years turned this country into an amazing Western nation.I think we will soon be on our way to moving back towards the middle and becoming the progressive US that we REALLY are.

Not to mention that even though the guard and army etc are all on the way to help it has been sheer bureaucracy that has taken them so long and prevented them from getting it together as quickly as they should have. There are people in a real refugees state and mistakes were made. For god sake if we can't get to our own people immediately in a disaster what the fuck are we doing trying to take care of the rest of the world by starting baseless wars. That and also, it is my understanding that there has been a plan on the table to take care of a lot of the gulf coast from an ecological point of view so that not only it will be ecologically sound but protected from disasters like this. My understanding is that this massive tragedy could have been prevented almost completely. The plan has been tabled for some time. It of course costs billions but from what I heard the cost for the plan is about the same as a few weeks of the war in Iraq.

Bush cut funding that would have helped protect them from this sort of thing; for the levees, flood protection. As Randi Rhodes said, the hurricanes blow through, but the flooding might not have occurred or would have been much less had the flood protection not been cut back to fund global conquest.

Gabe, there is already a evangelical weirdo blaming the city's "southern decadence." Here's a link.

Tlm--there is a phrase that's running through my mind right now that's quite vulgar, but I'll keep it to myself.

Let's just keep it simple here folks: Bush failed in his leadership role during Hurricane Katrina. All the forecasters were predicting a Gulf Coast hit after it crossed the Florida penninsula. They knew it was going to be strong. What did President Bush do?

Diddly shit. He went to Arizon and California. Spoke maybe 5 minutes about one of the biggest natural disasters America has faced and then ate some cake and played guitar. The man choked and then decided to get back to work.

Reminds me of this one day when he was reading a story about a pet goat...

This is just a damned sad situation. I'm going to give the administration the benefit of the doubt because I don't personally know what they're doing about this, but I will, however, say that I will be greatly, greatly, greatly disappointed if they:

1.) don't instantly make this the number one priority of government spending,2.) don't get some troops, rescue workers, support, $, food and medicine down there immediately and adequately,3.) use this disaster as a political cover to covertly pass dehumanizing legislation under the radar.

Or, maybe Bush should have invaded the hurricanes while they were still in the south Atlantic? You know... before they could attack us here?

CW-the governor and the mayor should be responsible for their own city and state. Why don't you blame them for not doing shit. Bush is the president of the USA not the Gulf region. Everybody was told to evacuate before the storm hit. He had nothing to do with it.BTW fuck Robert Kennedy Jr. to bad he didn't drown in that hurricane

You're either part of the problem or part of the solution. That's why I'm about to empty my pantry of all nonperishables and bring them to a local donation collection for the NO refugees that I heard about on the radio this morning. It's one way I can be part of the solution.

It's also just as important to learn from this. Environmental issues are not just the mad ramblings of tree hugging hippies. There have been warnings of the likeliness of such a disaster for quite some time now, but they were ignored in favor of other "priorities". I find it hard to believe that the people lucky enough not to have drowned and are sitting in sticky hot fith on their roofs waiting and praying to be rescued are still thinking the preemtive invasion of Iraq was such a priority now.

i don't think they care either way way about Iraq right now. If my home was damaged i wouldn't give 2 shits about Iraq and why we went there. The libs just can't face it was natures fault not because we went to Iraq. I'm pretty sure there will be plenty of funding to help get The gulf region back to it's original form. It worked out in Florida and in the carolinas the last time they got hit. Stop with the Iraq thing, that's just regoddamndiculous, one has absolutely nothing to do with the other

Emergency management when disasters strike more than one state is automatically under the perview of the federal government, particularly when states are declared federal disaster areas or in a state of emergency. That means that FEMA is in charge (now partly through Homeland Security), which is under the direction of the Commander and Chief AKA the President AKA Chimpy McSmirkly.

Moreover, when it comes to the actions of the Army Corps of Engineers and the federal budget, I'd place leadership requirements and responsibility on the man with the highest office in the land.

Oh, and araider, wishing someone had died in this disasters where thousands died is really, really, really low. I think you should apologize for that.

No, Araider, I'm not calling you an Asshole. No, no, what I'm saying is that Maine shouldn't worry about whether his comments come off as offensive to the masses here (ie being assholey) because we practice and encourage the flow of free speech here. Case in point, you. You don't care whether your opinion offends anyone, it's gonna come out as frankly as you think it. And that's fine because although I may not agree with some of your comments, for example Robert Kennedy Jr, there's a reason behind your opinion, it's not just random crap. Same goes for my opinions & comments about Iraq - you don't care for them, but they're not random either. Neither of us are random trolls spewing hateful shit for kicks. There is a difference, and thankfully most of the folks who comment here bring substance along with their opinions.We just all have to be prepared to back it up if we get called on it, and that's where the substance part comes in. Cool?

of course it's cool Sar.Actually if you said I'm an asshole, I would not be offended in any way, I would thank you.Usually everyone calls me a nice guy and that's just fucking boring.You can call me an asshole anytime you wish, or any other name for that matter. I welcome it.

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